The subjunctive
The discovery of the subjunctive. It's like a puzzle piece of English that I never learned and therefore always screwed with what I thought was proper and correct in the world.
From http://www.ceafinney.com/subjunctive/
Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines subjunctive as:
1. adj. 2. in grammar, designating or of that mood of a verb used to express condition, hypothesis, contingency, possibility, etc., rather than to state an actual fact: distinguished from imperative, indicative.
2. n. a verb in the subjunctive mood; specifically, the subjunctive mood.
Common expressions:
be that as it may
blessed be!
far be it from me
if it please the court
if need be
truth be told
God bless [you | her | him | them | us every one]
come what may
[God | Heaven] forbid !
perish the thought
God save [the alpacas | the Queen | the King | our merry band]
suffice it to say
Taken from http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/061.html
the forms.
"If she were coming, she would be here by now."
"I insist that the chairman resign!"
"Their main demand was that the lawsuit be dropped."
These sentences all contain verbs in the subjunctive mood, which is used chiefly to express the speaker’s attitude about the likelihood or factuality of a given situation. If the verbs were in the indicative mood, we would expect
"she was coming" in the first sentence
"the chairman resigns" in the second
"the lawsuit is dropped" in the third. 1
English has had a subjunctive mood since Old English times, but most of the functions of the old subjunctive have been taken over by auxiliary verbs like may and should, and the subjunctive survives only in very limited situations. It has a present and past form. The present form is identical to the base form of the verb, so you only notice it in the third person singular, which has no final -s, and in the case of the verb be, which has the form be instead of am, is, and are. The past subjunctive is identical with the past tense except in the case of the verb be, which uses were for all persons: If I were rich …, If he were rich …, If they were rich….
if clauses—the traditional rules. According to traditional rules, you use the subjunctive to describe an occurrence that you have presupposed to be contrary to fact: if I were ten years younger, if America were still a British Colony. The verb in the main clause of these sentences must then contain the verb would or (less frequently) should: If I were ten years younger, I would consider entering the marathon. If America were still a British colony, we would all be drinking tea in the afternoon. When the situation described by the if clause is not presupposed to be false, however, that clause must contain an indicative verb. The form of verb in the main clause will depend on your intended meaning: If Hamlet was really written by Marlowe, as many have argued, then we have underestimated Marlowe’s genius. If Kevin was out all day, then it makes sense that he couldn’t answer the phone.
Damn that's tight.
From http://www.ceafinney.com/subjunctive/
Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines subjunctive as:
1. adj. 2. in grammar, designating or of that mood of a verb used to express condition, hypothesis, contingency, possibility, etc., rather than to state an actual fact: distinguished from imperative, indicative.
2. n. a verb in the subjunctive mood; specifically, the subjunctive mood.
Common expressions:
be that as it may
blessed be!
far be it from me
if it please the court
if need be
truth be told
God bless [you | her | him | them | us every one]
come what may
[God | Heaven] forbid !
perish the thought
God save [the alpacas | the Queen | the King | our merry band]
suffice it to say
Taken from http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/061.html
the forms.
"If she were coming, she would be here by now."
"I insist that the chairman resign!"
"Their main demand was that the lawsuit be dropped."
These sentences all contain verbs in the subjunctive mood, which is used chiefly to express the speaker’s attitude about the likelihood or factuality of a given situation. If the verbs were in the indicative mood, we would expect
"she was coming" in the first sentence
"the chairman resigns" in the second
"the lawsuit is dropped" in the third. 1
English has had a subjunctive mood since Old English times, but most of the functions of the old subjunctive have been taken over by auxiliary verbs like may and should, and the subjunctive survives only in very limited situations. It has a present and past form. The present form is identical to the base form of the verb, so you only notice it in the third person singular, which has no final -s, and in the case of the verb be, which has the form be instead of am, is, and are. The past subjunctive is identical with the past tense except in the case of the verb be, which uses were for all persons: If I were rich …, If he were rich …, If they were rich….
if clauses—the traditional rules. According to traditional rules, you use the subjunctive to describe an occurrence that you have presupposed to be contrary to fact: if I were ten years younger, if America were still a British Colony. The verb in the main clause of these sentences must then contain the verb would or (less frequently) should: If I were ten years younger, I would consider entering the marathon. If America were still a British colony, we would all be drinking tea in the afternoon. When the situation described by the if clause is not presupposed to be false, however, that clause must contain an indicative verb. The form of verb in the main clause will depend on your intended meaning: If Hamlet was really written by Marlowe, as many have argued, then we have underestimated Marlowe’s genius. If Kevin was out all day, then it makes sense that he couldn’t answer the phone.
Damn that's tight.
posted by myevilterran at 1:36 PM
2 Comments:
If I were to have a job like yours, I'd squander hours combing the net for grammar rules too. Come to think of it, if I weren't raising your son, I'd be doing a lot of crazy shit.
As long as you are doing research, can you find out (or if you already know, enlighten me) as to when "h" words should be preceeded by "an" vs "a". We all know about "an historical..." but is there a rule? What about "an hysterical..." or "a hysterical"? "A human"? "An human"?
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